FF seems to be getting "Long in Tooth" so to speak and I have been getting away from it. Been trying Chrome recently. Unfortunately there are sites which Chrome can not open, including my employer site. I have switched back to the tried and true IE, but still have both FF and Chrome installed and only a click away. My IE loads at least as fast as FF, and only slightly slower than Chrome. It seems to do what I need it to do, without a lot of fuss, and seems to open all sites I wish to go to. So my choices are: 1) IE, 2) Chrome and 3) FF.

Don't have a sure fire answer to your loading problem with FF, sorry. I do not see this problem when I do use FF.

Do you clear the temp internet files in FF once in a while. The browser could be checking for large numbers of page updates because lots of pages are cached and it checks for newer versions each time you open the browser. Tools, Options, Privacy tab.

Hi Ted, I clean them with Ccleaner every other day, but do a full cleanup every Saturday. 1 run Cc, 2 clean FF manually ( cache 100mb ) 3 defrag+opt. with Auslogics. 4 System State & Disc image with Acronis 2010.
Peter Johnstone (Administrator) has explained missing notifications in Lounge Matters forum.

Problem solved. I had got an update for my firewall, Outpost Pro to version 7.0.3 which included Antispyware, it was in conflict with MSE. A quick remove/add minus spyware and back to running like honey (desktop PC + W7) BUT believe it or not, I prefer using my Vista HP PC Laptop.
Thanks Ted